Alpacas to appear in Super Bowl ad

Leslie Warren, of Rancho Keleje Alpacas in Fillmore, California was asked to provide 20 of her alpacas for the filming of Ford Motor's social media-driven Super Bowl commercial, that will air this Sunday, February 3, 2013.

Alpacas co-star in Super Bowl commercial.

Five Twitter "tweets" were woven into a 60-second spot featuring the Lincoln MKZ, Ford's 2013 redesigned midsize sedan. Comedian Jimmy Fallon put out a Twitter call for the wackiest road trip experiences. Five, from among some 6,117 tweets received, were chosen.

Here are video clips of the filming. To see what role the alpacas play in the commercial, you'll have to watch the game.. or at least the commercials... on Sunday.

Fleece and flannel warm our furry friends

Animals delight in fleece and flannel blankets.

The Riverbend Fiber Arts Guild will be supporting local animal care facilities and shelters by making fleece and flannel lap blankets at the January 5 guild meeting. The blankets and crate liners provide warmth and comfort to the cats and dogs awaiting adoption into loving homes.

Guild members are asked to bring the following supplies and tools:

• flannel fabric or flannel pillow cases
• old towels in any size (beach, bath, hand)
• scissors for cutting fabric
• rotary cutters, cutting mats, acrylic rotary rulers
• sewing machines or sergers and thread 

Fleece fabrics will be provided but donations are gladly accepted. If you would like to pre-cut any fabrics, the animal beds accommodate blankets that are approximately 24" x 36" and 12" x 17" in size.

This guild community service project is an easy and fun activity that everyone can do. Visitors are welcome and donations for the animal center will be accepted. It will all be going to the dogs... and cats!

Riverbend Fiber Arts Guild featured on Crochet News Today blog

The Riverbend Fiber Arts Guild was featured in Crochet News Today in its November 13, 2012 blog post. Not a crocheter? Well, don't let the Crochet News Today name fool you as blog editor, Melinda Gorley, offers information and articles about various fiber art disciplines and has included a calendar of events, links to podcasts, guild and club listings, charity organizations, and upcoming fiber and textile art exhibits at museums and galleries on this web site.

Color and texture with knitting.

If you live in the Chattanooga, Tennessee area, and are interested in needle and fiber arts, check out an overview of the activities of the Riverbend Fiber Arts Guild on the About Us page.

Join us in 2013. Enjoy the benefits of annual guild membership for only $15 and treat yourself to a year of fiber art!

Guild Challenge 2012, fiber art exhibit

Have you ever played, "Animal, Vegetable or Mineral?" The 2012 Guild Challenge for members of the Riverbend Fiber Arts Guild was a take-off on this much-loved guessing game, and the exhibit of Challenge entries was held at the November 3 guild meeting.

Ann Buggey describes the process
and materials used in her entry.

The requirements of the Challenge were to create a free standing, three-dimensional representation of something from nature. Materials used in the piece had to include something from each category—animal, vegetable and mineral—and a photo of the object that inspired the piece was to accompany the entry.

Guild members met the challenge with creative representations of their subjects. At the exhibit, the fiber artists discussed the construction processes and fiber art techniques they employed, and the materials used in their entry that fulfilled the Challenge requirements.

Here are the artists' statements:

Storm Tree by Ann Buggey

"Storm Tree" is made of wool roving, silk ribbon, and copper wire. It sits on a wooden base. The piece was inspired by a gnarled tree growing through a sidewalk in Memphis. No matter how often the tree was trimmed, it grew back more resilient. Its imperfections and the ravages of time and storms, became integral to its beauty.

Storm Tree: wool roving, silk ribbon, copper wire, wooden base.

"Farmer Joe" is a caricature of my older son, Joseph, who has a farm outside of Sewanee, Tennessee. The clothing, hair, etc. is in the style of his dress. He has eggs in one hand and a flower in the other. The armature is wire, he is seated on a piece of wood and the rest is needle felted roving.

Farmer Joe by Peggy Solomon

I like the idea of felting wool, but my hands no longer tolerate wet felting, so I have begun some work with needle felting.

Farmer Joe: needle felting with wool, wire armature, wood base.

"Lady Box Turtle" was inspired by my love for turtles and learning that my Cherokee ancestors were members of the Turtle Tribe. I have been wanting to learn how to sculpt paper clay, so I took this opportunity to try it. This was a fun challenge. 

Lady Box Turtle by Judy Anderson

A covered plastic egg was lined with antique silk. Hand dyed wool was felted for the turtle belly; hand made and dyed silk paper was embroidered with hand dyed silk thread (plates on back). Sculpted paper hands, feet and face; beaded ruffle, necklace and bracelet; crocheted hat.

Lady Box Turtle: plastic egg base, sculpted paper clay, wool, silk paper, beads.
Hand embroidered, felted, beaded and crocheted.

Lady Box Turtle: detail of beaded ruffle, paper sculpted feet and hands.

A ribbon for First Place, two Second Places and Viewers' Choice were awarded. Congratulations to the Challenge participants on their entries.

First Place: Judy Anderson

Second Place: Peggy Solomon

Second Place and Viewers' Choice: Ann Buggey

In appreciation for coordinating this year's Challenge, Pat Keran was presented with the book, "Knit Your Own Dog."

Left: Pat Keran shows the poodle page from the "Knit Your Own Dog" book.
Right: gift wrapping of the Thank You book.

Brainstorming for future programs

The October guild meeting of the Riverbend Fiber Arts Guild was filled with textile examples that stimulated and inspired ideas and suggestions for the upcoming year.

About three years ago, the guild began scheduling time during one of the guild meetings—usually a meeting near the end of the year— to hold an open brainstorming session for all guild members to share their "wish list" or "bucket list" of topics for future programs and workshops.

"This is your guild and we need [everyone's] input," said Guild President, Pat Keran, about generating ideas for programs and workshops for the upcoming 2013 year. "There are no right or wrong ideas in a brainstorming session," said Veronica Hofman-Ortega, who facilitated the session. "Oftentimes, someone else's suggestion will prompt an idea in your mind—something you might not have thought of on your own," she added. "It's all about generating ideas." A whiteboard, set up for capturing suggestions on-the-fly, was filled with over 25 topics by the end of the session. A few more topics were even added after Show and Tell.

Show and Tell provided additional inspiration.

Left: Vicki's woven paper basket with embellishment.
Right: Holly shows her mug wrap, knit in moss stitch. She used a pattern from
the book she won as a door prize at the 2011 Challenge presentation.

This shawl, woven on a triangle loom, will be over dyed in a walnut dye bath.

Triangle loom shawl (left) with edging detail.

A study in weaving huck lace patterns.

A first-time weaver relays her experience with a practice sampler.

Left: A woven scarf using spacers.
Right: A mola sewn to a plain T-shirt makes it quite unique.

Left: Faux batik with crayons. Right: Lace knitting a "Pi" shawl.

Woven scarves: what a difference a technique makes!

Crocheted scarves using interesting trims.

The outcome of this meeting's productive brainstorming session will provide a basis for future guild programs. Summaries and photos of previous year's programs can be found in the Archives: See what we've been doing! section of this web site. You might also enjoy recaps of our Wearable Art Challenge and Fiber Art Tote Bag Challenge. Items that appear at the guild Show and Tell are often the result of a guild program that inspired someone to further study or experiment with a technique or concept. 

Take a look at what the Riverbend Fiber Arts Guild has been up to and let us know what's on your fiber art bucket list. Come out and join us at a meeting. New members are always welcome and bring along your Show and Tell.

Paper Basketry

Paper strips were cut using a
pasta cutting machine.

Baskets, boxes, and bowls, whether functional or decorative, can be constructed with a variety of materials. At the September guild meeting of the Riverbend Fiber Arts Guild, paper—a flexible, versatile and readily available material—was the medium of choice for a program on how to make small woven baskets.

Painted paste paper is first cut into strips. A pasta cutting machine, scissors or a rotary cutter and mat can be used for this step. Starting at the bottom of the basket or container, strips are laid out and woven using a basic, plain weave pattern [over-one and under-one]. This weaving pattern is easy enough for beginners yet interesting patterns can be achieved by varying the placement and sequence of the colored strips.

To form the sides of the basket, the paper is slightly folded or crimped and the weaving continues.

Starting with 8 strips, the bottom of the basket is formed.

At the basket's opening, there is a variety of options for finishing: trimming the paper ends with a diagonal cut, curling the ends, and weaving the ends back into the sides of the container, to name a few. A small dot of glue can be used to hold the ends in place, if necessary.

Woven paper baskets.

This is a fun project for novice weavers, children of all ages, and anyone interested in 3-dimensional weaving. Resources such as Making Creative Baskets: Alternative Materials, Simple Techniques, are available for inspiration, instructions and further exploration.
 

The magic and beauty of Shibori

The program on "Shibori. Making marks with shaped resist dyeing," presented by fiber artist, Veronica Hofman-Ortega, held attendees captivated at the July Riverbend Fiber Arts Guild meeting. Ms. Hofman-Ortega's multimedia presentation and trunk show provided numerous examples of pattern, texture and the visual exuberance that can only be achieved with the shaped resist dye techniques of shibori.

Fiber artist, Veronica Hofman-Ortega, shows her arashi shibori sample
and talks about other examples of shibori patterns and techniques
during her presentation and trunk show.

"Shibori is a timeless and very versatile art form with limitless possibilities," said Veronica. "All aspects of the fabrics, technique, dye sequence as well as the serendipity of the dye bath work in concert to achieve the resulting patterns."

Along with her multimedia presentation, Veronica showed pieces from her wearable art collection, including a shibori wool vest she created based on Rachel Clark's "Picture This" vest pattern, and the mokume shibori jacket and silk dupioni "Power of Panthera Leo" vest that was published with her article, "Compliments of the Dye Pot," in Belle Armoire magazine in 2011.

Veronica displays her shibori wool vest using the "Picture This" vest
pattern by indie designer, Rachel Clark.
Veronica's collection of shibori artwear is shown at left.

Left: "Power of Panthera Leo" vest, Best of Show at the 2010 Guild Challenge.
Right: Two shibori techniques with appliqué Angelina fibers on a raw silk vest.

Never disappointed with the results of the shibori process, Ms. Hofman-Ortega encourages her audience to "Embrace the serendipity!" and enjoy the magic and organic beauty of shibori.

Mokume stitch resist technique on a raw silk jacket.

More of Veronica's fiber art adventures can be found on her web site, FiberAnticsbyVeronica.com. Veronica offered her recommendations on shibori resources here:


Also visit the World Shibori Network.

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Show and Tell

Guild members shared their fiber art creations during Show and Tell.

Mary's crochet shawl.

Martha's version of the crochet shawl.

Left: A striped knit shawl. Right: Hannah's crochet necklace.

Knit shawl detail.

Tia shows the loom made by her husband.

Crocheted baby tutu.